Fuuto PI Anime Reveals Theme Song Artists, August 1 Debut, New Key Visual

FUUTO PI, the television anime of the Fūto Tantei manga, held "The First Case" event with the cast on Tuesday, and the event unveiled the theme songs' artists, August 1 premiere, and a new key visual:

The live-action Kamen Rider W series' Sōkichi Narumi/Kamen Rider Skull actor Kouji Kikkawa composed the brand-new theme song "Tsumi to Batsu to Angura" (Crime, Punishment, and the Underground), and Mitsuru Matsuoka (Kamen Rider W: A to Z film's Katsumi Daido/Kamen Rider Eternal) wrote the lyrics and sings the vocals.

In addition, the instrumental unit "Big Gadgets ft.Aya Kamiki w TAKUYA" performs the new instrumental opening theme song "Private Eye." "Aya Kamiki w TAKUYA" performed Kamen Rider W's opening theme song, and they now perform the chorus in this new song.

The anime will premiere on the Tokyo MX channel on August 8 at 10:00 p.m. (9:00 a.m. EDT), but it will stream first on the U-NEXT service on August 1 at midnight.

The anime stars: (from left to right in image above)

• Makoto Furukawa as Ryū Terui
• Mikako Komatsu as Akiko Narumi
• Kouki Uchiyama as Philip
• Yoshimasa Hosoya as Shotaro Hidari
• Akira Sekine as Tokime
• Daisuke Ono as Yukiji Bandō

The anime project commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Kamen Rider franchise. Funimation initially announced that it would stream the anime, but Crunchyroll is now streaming Funimation's titles.

Yousuke Kabashima (Uma Musume Pretty Derby character design, chief animation director) is directing the anime at Studio KAI, with Ayataka Tanemura as assistant director. Kabashima is also listed as "Kamen Rider Dopant Animator" alongside Masahiro Yamane. Tatsuto Higuchi (Revue Starlight, Midnight Occult Civil Servants) is in charge of series composition, with original manga author Riku Sanjō credited for script supervision. Hidekazu Ebina (AMAZING STRANGER) is designing the characters for animation, and is also serving as the chief animation director alongside Sei Komatsubara. Yukiyoshi Shikiji, Kazuhito Tomonaga, and Kenta Yokoya are credited as main animators.

The manga is a sequel project for the 2009 Kamen Rider W (pronounced "double") series. Riku Sanjō, a crucial writer for the original series, is in charge of the manga's scripts. Masaki Satou (Love Theory) is drawing the manga. Toei producer Hideaki Tsukada is supervising the manga. Katsuya Terada (Blood: The Last Vampire, Silk Road Kids) is credited for creature design. As with the original series, the new sequel is once again set in Fūto city and focuses on the characters Shotaro Hidari and Philip.

Toei describes the manga:

FUUTO is under the protection of Shotaro and Philip,
But bizarre incidents continue to occur frequently on the far side of the city.
Tokime, a mysterious beauty, appears and a new evil casts its shadow over the windy city.
It's the beginning of a new battle for Kamen Rider W.

The manga launched in Shogakukan's Big Comic Spirits magazine in August 2017.

The Kamen Rider W series aired from September 2009 to August 2010 as the 11th Kamen Rider show in Japan's Heisei era. The show starred Renn Kiriyama as Shotaro Hidari and Masaki Suda as his buddy Philip.

Update: Crunchyroll reports that it will begin streaming the anime in August in "North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa, Oceania, the Middle East and CIS," but it also misidentifies the roles of the theme song artists.

Update 2: Crunchyroll has corrected the credits for the theme song artists.

Sources: Kamen Rider franchise's website, Comic Natalie